More public input will be gathered before officials with Neosho R-5 schools put a bond issue on the ballot.

The school district held a work session Thursday with members of the district's architectural firm, Sapp Designs Associates.

"We really don't feel like we have had enough input," said Tim Crawley, the district's director of operations. "We need to have public forums to get more public input."

One of the ideas the architectural firm has put forth is to construct a traditional junior high school for seventh and eighth graders that could be expanded into a high school at a future date.

Crawley said the deadline to get a bond issue on the April ballot is Jan. 21, the same night as the next school board meeting.

"We're looking at all of the options," Crawley said. "We did not decide on anything, except that we're not ready to go to the voters.

It may be likely the issue won't be on the ballot until April 2014. This is because while a simple four-sevenths majority is required for bond issues in April elections, those in other months require a two-thirds "super" majority.

In other business, the district also received word it had been granted tentative approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build emergency shelters at Carver and South elementaries and at Neosho High School. The district will have six months from Jan. 1 to get the projects under way.